Make, Jane, make!

Recipe: Kale, Kohlrabi and Apple Slaw

2015-06-28T13:34:00.003-04:00

Wow, I opened my poor lonely blogger dashboard to find seven drafts and no finish in sight for any of them. There will be no conclusion for them tonight either as I'm ignoring those half finished posts in favour of getting this recipe into the books.
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First birthday: the fourth coming

2015-04-13T14:01:00.002-04:00

Does that title even make sense?

We've celebrated yet another birthday in our house and I think I'm getting the hang of this birthday thing. Plastic tablecloths, buntings, streamers, and sad, half-deflated balloons are in competition to replace vases and throw pillows as my new home decor style. It's the whole four kids thing.

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Superhero Birthday Party, Take 2

2015-02-28T17:55:00.000-05:00

My second born turned five recently (sniff, sniff) and requested a superhero party to celebrate. Having learned some things from the first time around, I resolved to make this superhero party a little easier to manage.

Seahawks for the Double! SuperBowl Chili...

2015-02-01T17:33:00.000-05:00

Over the course of our summer CSA box, we once again received spaghetti squash. I've tried in the past to like spaghetti squash, but it has just never really spoken to me.... Until now.

Turns out I needed something a little more substantial than marinara to take spaghetti squash from meh to mmm.

Of course this post is not timely at all, in terms of our farmshare or seasonally available produce. But it is super timely if you're planning on having chili for Superbowl Sunday today. The chili seen with the spaghetti squash in the above picture was just a quick weeknight chili. But below you'll find the recipe for what we munched on before the game (seen in the first pic of the dutch oven).

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Weeknight Dinner: One-Pot Chicken with Mushrooms and Squash

2015-01-31T01:08:00.001-05:00

We've been busy here. Three of the four kids have started skiing and we've been going once a week to take advantage of the fleetingly snow covered hills in our neck of the woods. Due to the ski shop-esque amounts of ski equipment and paraphernalia we now own, I've had to take some time to clean out clothing and closets and storage areas. Finally organising our mudroom closet was extremely satisfying though and I'm now pleasantly surprised at how neat at least one (albeit small) part of my house looks.

In the meantime, I've been ignoring my little bloggie here and I've been to miss the harsh white glow of the laptop screen burning into my retinas late at night. So today I made an effort to get a blog post in and intentionally kept the camera handy in the hopes that my dinner recipe tonight would be a keeper.

(Jump to the recipe...)

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Belated Post-Holiday Post

2015-01-16T19:44:00.004-05:00

I started writing this post more than a week ago and have just now come back to it. I really don't know if there will ever be anything that really resembles a flow in our house but I do know that getting back into that barely-existent flow after a mere two weeks of holidays was more difficult than it should have been. Chalk it up to the late nights, fun get-togethers, overeating and sleeping in. Throw in daddy taking a couple weeks off to be home with us and the fact that we made the most of our family time, with all play and zero chores, and you've got the makings of a back-to-routine disaster.

Suffice to say, the Christmas trees are finally down and everything is boxed and ready to go back into storage or out to the curb. We may have finally caught up to nearly two weeks of not doing laundry. Everyone is able to wake up for school/work with only the usual amount of eye rubbing and complaining. And I think I may have enough time to finally finish this long overdue post of the flurry of baking and sewing that happens over the holidays. Here's a photo recap. Some further posts may follow with more pictures of the projects that I was especially happy with.

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LIttle Chefs Party

2015-01-02T15:24:00.000-05:00

Shortly before Christmas, my firstborn celebrated his seventh birthday. I'm still kinda shell-shocked by it because I can still remember celebrating his first birthday as if it was yesterday and I'm not really sure where all the time has gone. Who knows whether or not he'll even want mommy to throw him corny birthday parties anymore in a few years? Every new year for him brings unknown waters and new territories; being the first child, he'll always be our parenting test subject.

Yes, that's PvZ on his apron... he's never played but his friends have! (Sorry for the bad picture... don't know what happened to the original picture, just took another one with my phone when I noticed today, Jan16/15)

The First Annual Minivan Express was a Success!!!

2014-12-24T21:37:00.001-05:00

I have a love-hate relationship with the blogosphere. Love for all the great ideas that people share. Hate for not having the time nor talent to explore all of those pinterest-worthy projects. Our cousin on the west coast often shares many of these great ideas on her FB feed but usually they end up on my to-do (then forgotten about) list. The Minivan Express from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler though was totally within my reach and had the added bonus of being time-sensitive, meaning that I had to get off my butt and get the gears in motion.

I'm only three or four years late...

2014-12-22T09:24:00.000-05:00

... But you can now find me on instagram.

I first started this blog because I wanted to chronicle and share all my adventures in creating, learning and making. I'm beginning to realize though that adding ever more children to my life has really cut into my blogging time. So while I am still trying to blog as much as I can, I wanted a way to share my smaller projects without a whole blog entry, my longer projects before they are finished, and some of the poor quality pictures that I snap quickly with my phone. Hence instagram.

Check out all these pictures I took this autumn that I thought I'd have a chance to blog about....

... Obviously those blog posts never happened.

So if you wanna see some of the daily pics of new dinner recipes, crafting with the kids, small sewing projects, or you just like being barraged by a stream of my self-indulgent photos then please follow me on instagram (@MakeJanemake).

The Stocking Set is Complete!

2014-12-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

I really should have lit the fireplace for this picture.... but when you're trying to take a picture of stockings that seem to spin and all face different directions and you've got a excited toddler and a separation-anxious infant and a home-sick-from-school kindergartener all trying to squeeze into the picture as well, the last thing you want is a burned hand on a little screaming person.

Anyway, here's the kids' favourite Christmas decorations after the tree... their stockings. I'm so happy with how they turned out because I had no idea I would be making a matched set way back when I made the first stocking on a whim.
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DIY Halloween: The Cheshire Cat How-To, Part Two

2014-12-15T01:01:00.000-05:00

You came back for more after my long-winded Part One? Thanks for the interest! The first part of this tutorial in which I go over how I modified an existing (free!) dinosaur costume into a cat body is here. And the original, unmodified costume pattern is available here.

The hood part of the costume is where I made the most changes. Nothing mind-blowing or super innovative. Just adding a lining so that details could be added onto the hood or, in the case of my modified Buddy the Dinosaur costume, teeth could be inserted into the mouth opening.
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DIY Halloween: The Cheshire Cat How-To, Part One

2014-12-15T00:45:00.004-05:00

I know it's almost Christmas, but better late than never... and when I say never, I really mean never. This post might be lost to the abyss of mommy-brain for-EVER. So without further ado, the final Down the Rabbit Hole Halloween post... part one.

So here's a two-part, how-to post on making a full body animal costume by modifying a great free costume available from PBS.org --> Buddy the Dinosaur Costume. The first part will be just dealing with the body and then I'll write a separate post for the head.
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Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Bourbon Buttercream

2014-12-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

Nothing says Christmas like pumpkins and booze, right?

I originally set out to make pumpkin eggnog cupcakes but when I discovered that I'd used all my nutmeg making James Beard's Amazing Persimmon Bread as shared by David Lebovitz, I had to make a last minute substitution. Out went the Cuban rum and along came the Kentucky bourbon. (Also in case you're wondering, the persimmon bread recipe is absolutely delicious... and boozy as well).

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Holiday Sewing - A New Hat

2014-12-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Oh boy, do I ever have an ambitious holiday sewing list this year! I know I probably won't get most of it done, but a girl can imagine, right? And what better place to start than with my fleece scraps accumulated from making various Canadian-climate, Halloween costume ensembles. (And yes, in the near future I'll finish up the posts from Halloween with a how-to for the Cheshire Cat costume ;)

DIY Halloween: The Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit

2014-11-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

I'm proud to say that this Halloween I only spent about $25 on new materials/accessories. Everything else came from previous projects (which were probably also bought on the cheap!) or was clothing items from the kids' closets. Of course, as my hubby always points out, that doesn't account for the time spent in making those costumes and I have to admit that I expended far more effort on this Mad Hatter costume than I had originally planned.

DIY Halloween: Simple and Quick Alice in Wonderland

2014-11-07T12:59:00.000-05:00

Note to self: Never ever make promises that have dates or times attached to them. Like saying I'll be somewhere with my four chronologically-indifferent children at a specific time. Or saying that this post would be done a week ago. Or promising myself to start Halloween sewing earlier. The end result is always that I'm rushing up until the last minute and sometimes miss my deadline completely.

This year, I started out with a bang and high hopes. The fabric was bought and washed at the beginning of October, making an early Halloween costume debut entirely possible. But as my young children slowly become older children, I'm starting to get a taste of how chaotic scheduling and managing children's calendars can be. So between birthday parties and Chinese school and weddings and Thanksgiving, the costumes were just barely done in time for our annual photo shoot with friends.

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DIY Halloween: Down the Rabbit Hole We Go...

2014-10-29T15:57:00.000-04:00

How many more years of matching costumes will my kids allow me? I don't know. My eldest is now almost seven and surely will tire of mommy's cute family costumes soon. In fact, I was worried that this year was already the beginning of store-bought, licensed costumes since their first costume requests were for Tranformers and various Marvel comics characters.

Mini dumpling factory II: Gnocchi!

2014-10-24T18:09:00.002-04:00

I know some people think it's a little crazy to cook or bake with kids. The mess and the bickering and the inefficiency and all. But when you love to do something, you want to share it with those that you love. (Besides, I'll never be able to kick back and enjoy a meal made by my kids if I don't start training them now).

I love that the kids can surprise you and learn skills and have perseverance beyond what you (under) estimated for them. Check out my son in action. Turns out that little fingers are ideal for perfectly dimpled gnocchi. (And yes, the video is almost completely silent cuz that just how serious my little number two is).

It's also true what they say about kids being more interested in eating a meal they had a hand in making. I'm sure that my veggie phobic four year old would not have gobbled down these chard gnocchi in quite the same way if he had not made half of them himself. Never mind that they were a dreaded green colour and tasted fairly strongly of chlorophyll.

Additionally, I hope that my kids will grow an appreciation of food; where it comes from, what goes into it, and the people who prepare it for them. This chard gnocchi even gave them a glimpse of "from farm to table" since they picked up the chard, potatoes and eggs from the farm (Round The Bend Farm) with me earlier in the day.

Just because they can't bring home the bacon, doesn't mean that they shouldn't kiss the cook who fried it for them!

P. S.
Yes, the dishes and many other chores in our house often get ignored in favour of doing stuff with the kids. And no, we did not drink all that beer in one sitting... It was at least two.

Mini Dumpling Factory

2014-10-19T23:59:00.000-04:00

We're having a cool summer which has been fantastic for kitchen work. Normally in the summer, my kitchen feels like some kind of medieval torture chamber... Except instead of being slowly immersed into a dunk tank, I'm drowning in heat and humidity. This year, we've barely had the a/c on at all and the windows and doors are open most days with a cool breeze flowing through the whole house.

Recently, we capitalized on the cool weather and had the kids help out in the kitchen to produce some delicious dumplings. We had some vegetarian dumplings to wrap as well, so the younger ones could help without running the risk of inadvertent raw meat consumption.

Of course having three kids do anything in the kitchen (or anywhere for that matter) will eventually result in all kinds of silliness; and these industrious faces were quickly replaced by laughter and giggles and dumplings made in every possible shape you can think of.

And as annoying as it was to endlessly repeat that "dumplings which are not closed at both ends will not stay together when mommy cooks them" I had to remember that my brothers and I used to play the exact same games when we "helped" in the kitchen.

There'd be the biggest dumpling ever. The smallest dumpling ever. The flattest dumpling ever. The dumpling with the thickest skin ever. The dumpling with only one piece of choy (vegetable). The dumpling that was only meat. The square dumpling, The triangle dumpling. And so on and so on. I remember, my mom would separate any dumplings that she could recognize as our handiwork and make the offending party eat them. In fact, if my mom and dad are reading this right now, they are probably laughing about my brother's specialty dumplings that would only contain "one snot of filling" and thinking that I deserve whatever my kids dish out to me for the endless grief I must have caused them.

In any case, I hope that the kids enjoy learning about our food and culture. I look forward to the day that they will be able to share these things with their own families... cause what greater joy can a parent have than to one day witness their children passing on beloved family traditions and have karma come and bite them in the <fattest dumpling ever>?

And pause...

2014-10-16T14:00:00.000-04:00

Once in a while, the stars align and everything goes more or less according to plan. Hubby and I actually sat down to a quiet adult lunch while the boys are at school, one daughter naps and the other plays happily in her jumper.

Now I sit and digest (both are strange and rare sensations) and contemplate what I shall write to my neglected blog. Or rather, what I can write given the limited time that this total eclipse of child-demands will last and my proficiency on a phone keyboard.

Perhaps, I should stop while I'm ahead and simply say that Martha's tomato tart with its roasted garlic crust was heavenly, eaten in a quiet and clean (as can be expected) kitchen. And that soon my blog should be awash in photos and entries about Halloween prep.... If the heavens allow and all goes according to plan, of course.

P. S. And inevitably, I'm no longer sitting and digesting. Instead I'm nursing a baby to sleep and embellishing this post with pictures from my phone camera.

Radicchio and Corn Salad

2014-09-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

This dinner was the epitome of eating as local as possible. The maple mustard chicken is locally raised and bought from our neighbourhood butcher. The carrots, potatoes and turnip that roasted under the chicken legs came from our Round the Bend Farm CSA box. And the beautiful chopped salad (save the dressing and cranberries) uses ingredients that are also from our CSA box.

(Jump to the recipe...)

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Pasta Nicoise

2014-09-09T22:34:00.000-04:00

It's been the summer of the salad. The cool weather has provided our farm and CSA box with much more lettuce than anyone probably ever imagined possible. There was a point in time when hubby and I were eating mammoth salads for lunch and dinner plus green smoothies for breakfast and snacks.
(Jump to the recipe...)

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Vietnamese Sausage (Nem Nuong) Lettuce Wraps

2014-09-02T22:40:00.002-04:00

Summer always calls for meals that are full of fresh and raw greens served with grill-marked meats. And although the heat never fully arrived this year that didn't stop anyone from firing up the charcoal and enjoying some outdoor cooking, right?

This summer, we've received such beautiful lettuce and radicchio from our farmshare that it was inevitable that we would consume a lot of it in cup/wrap form. And what's our favourite filling for our lettuce wraps? Nem nuong. Delicious grilled pork.

(Jump to the recipe)
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Homemade American Cheese? Verdict? Worth it!

2014-08-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

When I was pregnant with my first son, I had strange taste and smell aversions. (Subsequently, I discovered it was morning sickness, just without the tell-tale being sick part.) One of my weird taste and smell aversions was cheese. I thinking that I was exposing the cheese to too much moisture and it was going off really quickly... I don't know how much cheese I threw into the trash thinking it had gone bad before finally asking hubby to double-check for me.

Unfortunately, I loooove cheese and I craved for it. So I took to having processed cheese and soon bagels with a Kraft single nuked over top became a common breakfast for me. Funny to reminisce about it now - there I was, first time mom, trying so hard to do everything right for my unborn babe. All the while, feeding myself artificial cheese that was nuked (not even toasted!) over dollar-a-loaf-grocery-store bagels. I guess it could have been worse, I could have wanted spray cheese and a ramen cup ;)

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Kohlrabi and Corn Fritters

2014-08-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

Jump to the recipe...

Every year, inevitably, we'll receive the other-worldly kohlrabi in our CSA box. The first year we got it I was stumped. What to do with this strange root? I've tried it in coleslaw (nothing spectacular and not really to my liking). I've also tried stir-frying it (too soggy), roasting it (delicious but too hot to turn on the oven that often) and boiling and pureeing it into soup (yummy but felt like just a riff on cauliflower soup). I had yet to find a way to prepare kohlrabi that was simple and tasty and uniquely "kohlrabi".
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